Construction Begins at the Paramount Theater

ST. CLOUD - It’s out with the old and in with the new at the Paramount Theater. 714 old theater seats are being removed starting tomorrow (Monday). Executive Director Bob Johnson says once the old seats are removed construction will begin on the floor.

"The floor will be done first, and that will take a couple of weeks. Then the new seats will begin to be installed as we get into June, and the completion date is June 20^th."

Some of the seats being removed were put up for sale. If you purchased some of the seats, Johnson says they will be available to pick up on the 19^th, 20^th, and 21^st in the lobby.

With the work beginning in the theater there will be no shows until it’s complete. The first show with the new seats is scheduled to take place on July 16^th with a performance by the Andrew Walesch Big Band.

We are going to invite all those people who sponsored a seat to come to a concert; Andrew Walesch is going to do 100 years of Frank Sinatra with a big band. Tickets are on sale now actually for the public. We will also plan to set aside seats for all those folks who have sponsored them so far.

There will be two performances on July 16th. The first at 1:30 p.m. and the second that evening at 7:00 p.m. There will be a total of 806 new sets going into the theater.

Johnson says you can still sponsor some of these new seats by visiting the Paramount Theater Box Office, or by going to the theater’s website.

As part of the work at the Paramount Theater the northbound traffic lane on 9^th/10^th Avenue between 1^st Street South and 1^st Street North will be reduced to a single lane of traffic. The road closure will take place tomorrow (Monday) and Tuesday starting at 9:00 a.m. on both days.